New Delhi, June 12 -- There are books that offer comfort, and then there are books that understand why comfort is never enough. Author Tayari Jones' Kin, the much-awaited follow-up to her An American Marriage, belongs firmly in the latter category. It is a deeply moving, emotionally intelligent novel about found family, but it is not the kind of story that ties pain into a pretty ribbon by the final page. It aches, it unsettles, and then it leaves you with the lingering truth that identity is not a destination. It is a lifelong negotiation.

As historical fiction, the novel is vivid without becoming decorative. The story is told through Vernice and Annie, two motherless girls raised in Louisiana's Honeysuckle. The novel follows these two ...